1. Field
The present application relates to extended circuit integrated suspensions (ECIS), and more specifically, to the load beam and the flexure circuit of the ECIS.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hard disk drives are continuously increasing capacity due to new features in all aspects of the electromechanical design. Several such features relate to the area in close proximity to, or inside, the read/write head and suspension supporting it. For example, the flying height control is employed by using a heating element around the read transducer. This results in additional traces to be brought to the head through the suspension flexure/circuit. While four lead heads were once common (two leads for the reader and two leads for the writer), the addition of the heater necessitated six lead heads and a corresponding capable suspension flexure/circuit. Thermal Asperity (TA) detection, which is a sensor located within the read/write head, is an example where eight lead heads and a corresponding capable suspension flexure/circuit are needed. Writer heaters, and Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording (HAMR), which co-locates a laser under the slider (head), further strain the interconnect challenges of the read/write head and suspension flexure/circuit. Further, data rate, bandwidth and low power consumption requirements tend to drive lower write trace impedance which is enabled by wider trace widths. Real estate management for the traces in the suspension flexure/circuit has become more important.